Prefabricated heating, ventilating and air conditioning unit

ABSTRACT

A heating, ventilating and air conditioning unit comprising separate hot air and cold air supply compartments adapted for connection to separate air supplies, a foul air return compartment in communication with each room for withdrawing foul air from the room, and two open compartments housing respectively hot water and cold water fin-type radiators. Flat-tube radiators having hot and cold water sections are located in front of the open compartments. In addition, separate hot and cold water distribution systems are provided in the unit and connected to the flat-tube radiators and to the fin-type radiators for supplying water thereto.

United States Patent Henriot [451 Aug. 22, 1972 [72] Inventor: MauriceHenriot, 70, Avenue Paul Valery, 95 Sarcelles, France [22] Filed: March24, 1970 [21] Appl. N0.: 22,238

7/1965 Bressoud ..I65/l6 8/1949 Hubbard ..236/1E FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 375,040 3/ I964 Switzerland ..165/16 PrimaryExaminer-Kenneth W. Sprague Assistant Examiner-W. C. AndersonAttorney-Raymond A. Robic ABSTRACT A heating, ventilating and airconditioning unit comprising separate hot air and cold air supplycompartments adapted for connection to separate air supplies, a foul airreturn compartment in communication with each room for withdrawing foulair from the room, and two open compartments housing respectively hotwater and cold water fin-type radiators. Flat-tube radiators having hotand cold water sections are located in front of the open compartments.In addition, separate hot and cold water distribution systems areprovided in the unit and connected to the flat-tube radiators and to thefin-type radiators for supplying water thereto.

6 Claims, 10 Drawing figures Patented Aug. 22, 1972 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 0 4a w w 0 4 l/wmro/r Maurice HE/VR/UT Patented Aug. 22, 1972 3,685,515

' 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 lA/YFNTOR Maurice HENR/OT A TT ORNE Y Patented Aug.22, 1972 3,685,575

' 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Maurice WA /07- PREFABRICATED HEATING, VENTILA'IINGAND AIR CONDITIONING UNIT This invention relates to a prefabricatedheating, ventilating and air conditioning unit for use more particularlyin juxtaposed rooms of buildings having a number of floors.

Prefabricated heating, ventilating and air conditioning units have beenmanufactured for some time. However, such units have always beenseparate and have required skilled labor to install them. Since the costof labor has gradually increased during the past years, the industry hasbeen looking for a reduction of labor cost in the manufacture as well asin the installation of such units.

In addition, the arrangement of the various units in a building hasalways been a problem from the point of view of space and goodappearance as well.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide acomplete installation grouping in a single unit all the equipment neededfor heating, ventilating and air conditioning each room of a building.The complete units in each room may be juxtaposed and interconnectedfrom floor to floor. It will be easily understood that the installationof such a unit is much more simple and thus requires less man hours.

A complete unit, in accordance with the invention, comprises separatehot air and cold air supply compartments adapted for connection toseparate air supplies, a foul air return compartment for communicationwith each room for withdrawing foul air from each room, and two opencompartments housing respectively hot water and cold water fm-typeradiators. Flat-tube radiators having hot and cold water sections arelocated in front of the open compartments, and separate hot and coldwater distribution systems are provided in each unit for connecting theabove mentioned radiators to separate hot and cold water supplies.

It will be understood that the above disclosed complete unit may besimplified depending on what is required in a particular building underconstruction. If, p

for example, heating only is required, the unit may be simplified byeliminating the compartments used for cooling. In addition, the foul airreturned compartment could be eliminated if not needed.

Furthermore, only one type of radiators may be required. If theflat-tube radiators are deleted, they maybe replaced by a grill forcovering the open compartments. The flat-type radiators may be kept, butthe fin-type radiators replaced by mixing boxes in communication withthe hot and cold air supply compartments. Finally, the flat-tuberadiators and the water distribution systems may be deleted altogether,leaving the mixing boxes and the hot and cold air supply compartmentsalone.

Another unit may also be envisaged in which the hot and cold air supplycompartments are eliminated leaving only at least one water distributionsystem in the unit and at least one hot or cold flat-tube radiatorlocated in front of the unit.

The invention will now be disclosed with reference to a few embodimentsof the invention and to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a unit in accordance with theinvention installed in a room;

FIG. 2 illustrates a section along lines 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of the unit with some sectionalviews therein so as to illustrate certain elements of the units;

FIG. 4 illustrates the connection of a number of units in series and toa conditioning and heating plant;

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the water distributionsystems illustrated in FIG. 2; I

FIG. 6 illustrates a section view through one of the water distributionsystems of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative embodiment of FIG. 1 in which theradiators appearing in front of the unit have been replaced by a grill;

FIG. 8 illustrates a section view through a unit in which the radiatorsand water distribution systems have been replaced by mixing boxes;

FIG. 9 illustrates a front view of the unit of FIG. 8 with the grillremoved; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, there is shown a complete unitincorporating all the elements required for heating, ventilating and airconditioning a room. Such unit comprises a hot air supply compartment 10and a cold air supply compartment 12 extending the full length of theunit and being open at the top and at the bottom thereof for a purposewhich will be disclosed later.

Intermediate the air supply compartments l0 and 12, there is provided afoul air return compartment 14 for withdrawing foul air from each roomof the building. Foul air return compartment 14 extends the full lengthof the unit and is provided with an opening 16 which is closed by agrill 18 having regulating vanes 20.

In front of foul air return compartment 14, there are provided twocompartments 22 and 24 separated by a partition 26 and opened at thefront. Open compartment 22 houses a fin-type radiator 28 in which hotwater is circulated and open compartment 24 houses a fm-type radiator 30in which cold water is circulated. Flat-tube radiators 31 and 32 eachmade of two sections are located in front of the open compartments 22and 24 secured to the unit.

A water distribution system including tubes 34, 36 and 38 is molded ineach partition 40 located between the air supply compartments and theopen compartments for circulating hot or cold water into the radiators28, 30, 31 and 32 as it will be disclosed more fully in a later part ofthe description. Each partition 40 has openings 42 therein forpermitting hot or cold air circulating in supply compartments 10 and 12to pass through open compartments 22 and 24 and to exit in the roombehind flat-tube radiators 31 and 32.

Referring now more particularly to FIG. 3, it may be seen that waterenters into the fin-type radiator 30 from the front tube 34, goes uppipe 44, and comes back through pipe 45 and thermostatic valve 48 andgoes back to tube 36 by means of pipe 50. Similarly, water enteringthrough pipe 34 goes up one section of flattype radiators 32 and down anadjacent section as indicated by arrow 52 into tube 36.

Pipes 44 and 45 have extensions 46 and 47 respectively which are securedto the bottom of the open compartments for holding the lower part of theradiators. Other means (not shown) are provided for holding the upperpart thereof.

As it will be easily understood, the circulation of hot water throughfin-type radiator 28 and through flattube radiators 31 is identical andneed not be disclosed in detail.

An opening 53 may be provided in-partitions 40 for the evacuation ofwater condensed in open compartments 22 and 24. 4

The connections of plural units in series from floor to floor of abuilding is illustrated schematically in FIG. 4 of the drawings. The hotor cold air supply originating from'the .conditioning and heating plant54 is pumped into the air supply compartments or 12 of the various unitsby vacuum pump 56. The hot and cold supply compartments are joined fromfloor to floor by flexible connections 58 such as illustrated in FIG. 3of the drawings. From the respective supply compartments air is pushedinto each room as mentioned previously.

The hot or cold water supply originating from the conditioning andheating plant 54 is pumped through valve 60 by pump 62 into tubes 34 ofthe various units in a manner such as to establish substantially thesame differential pressure at the input of the radiators of each floor.For example, the radiators of the first floor have the shortest inputpath (from plant 54 to the bottom of the unit) but the longest outputpath (three lengths of tube 36 and three return lengths of tube 38).Such an, arrangement is known in the art of the Tichelman connection.The tubes 34, 36 and 38 are interconnected by flexible connections 64 asillustrated in FIG. 3. In addition tubes 36 and 38 of the top unit areinterconnected.

The foul air return compartments of each unit are also interconnected byflexible connections 66 such as illustrated in FIG. .3. The foul airreturn compartments usually exit on the roof of the building.

The complete unit disclosed so far may be simplified or modified to suitvarious needs. A first alternative embodiment is the one illustrated inFIGS. 5 and 6 in which the water distribution system is built in a block70 which is independent from the unit and may be removed and replaced atwill. Such block 70 may also be equipped with well known air diffusers72 to replace the openings 42 in the partition 40 of FIGS. 1 to 3 of thedrawings. Block 70 maybe secured to the wall by means of a bar 74passing through the back of the unit as illustrated in FIG. 6.

' FIG. 7 illustrates a further modification of the unit in accordancewith the invention in which the flat-tube Another embodiment of theinvention is illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9 of the drawings wherein thepartition of FIGS. 1 to 3 has been removed and the radiators opencompartment.

air into the room.

Furthermore, a unit could be positioned on a wall which is common to twoadjacent rooms and may be Such a simplified arrangement could beadvantageously used in kitchens and bathrooms to replace the systems nowused.

All the above disclosed units provide an installation which is completeper se. Such a unit maybe installed very easily at the building site andconnection to the conditioning and heating plant.

I claim:

1. A unit permitting heating, ventilatingand air conditioning of a roomcomprising a cabinet extending the full height of the room andincluding:

a. at least one vertical air supply compartment for connection to an airsupply at one end thereof;

b. at least one vertical open compartment for housing radiator means; Ic. a partition separating said air supply compartment and said opencompartment,said partition having openings therein for communicating theair supply compartment with the open compartment; and

d. at least one water distribution system located within said partitionand extending vertically through the entire length thereof forconnecting said radiator means to a water supply at one end of saidpartition.

2. A unit as defined in claim 1, wherein said partition is removable.

3. A plurality of units as defined in claim 1, used for a buildinghaving a number of floors, and further comprising flexible connectionsfor connecting together a plurality of juxtaposed units located one ineach floor.

4. A unit as defined in claim 1, wherein there are two open compartmentsfor housing said radiator means one for a hot water radiator and theother for a cold water radiator, two air supply compartments one for hotair and one for cold air located one on each side of said opencompartments, two water distribution systems, one for hot water and onefor cold water, and wherein said cabinet further includes one foul airreturn compartment located at the back of said open compartments and incommunication with said room for withdrawing foul air from said room.

5. A unit as defined in claim 4, further comprising flat-tube radiatorslocated in front of said open compartments and also connected to saidwater distribution systems.

6. A unit as defined in claim 4, further comprising a grill closing theopen portion of the compartments housing the radiator means.

1. A unit permitting heating, ventilating and air conditioning of a roomcomprising a cabinet extending the full height of the room andincluding: a. at least one vertical air supply compartment forconnection to an air supply at one end thereof; b. at least one verticalopen compartment for housing radiator means; c. a partition separatingsaid air supply compartment and said open compartment, said partitionhaving openings therein for communicating the air supply compartmentwith the open compartment; and d. at least one water distribution systemlocated within said partition and extending vertically through theentire length thereof for connecting said radiator means to a watersupply at one end of said partition.
 2. A unit as defined in claim 1,wherein said partition is removable.
 3. A plurality of units as definedin claim 1, used for a building having a number of floors, and furthercomprising flexible connections for connecting together a plurality ofjuxtaposed units located one in each floor.
 4. A unit as defined inclaim 1, wherein there are two open compartments for housing saidradiator means one for a hot water radiator and the other for a coldwater radiator, two air supply compartments one for hot air and one forcold air located one on each side of said open compartments, two waterdistribution systems, one for hot water and one for cold water, andwherein said cabinet further includes one foul air return compartmentlocated at the back of said open compartments and in communication withsaid room for withdrawing foul air from said room.
 5. A unit as definedin claim 4, further comprising flat-tube radiators located in front ofsaid open compartments and also connected to said water distributionsystems.
 6. A unit as defined in claim 4, further comprising a grillclosing the open portion of the compartments housing the radiator means.